The surprise announcement of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley’s resignation from her postmarks what is likely to be yet another shift for the Trump administration’s foreign policy, most notably in the area of human rights. In an administration that has abdicated U.S. leadership on human rights and adopted some of the most destructive human-rights rhetoric and policies in recent memory—such as separating migrant families and detaining children, reinstating and dramatically expanding the Global Gag Rule, banning immigrants and refugees from Muslim majority countries, and embracing and lauding authoritarian leaders around the world, among many others—Haley was often the lone voice on Donald Trump’s national-security team to publicly raise human-rights issues, albeit selectively. However, with her absence and depending on who Trump selects as her successor, any concern for human-rights issues, rhetorical or otherwise, is likely to disappear entirely from Trump’s national-security team. Certainly, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton have shown no concern for human rights.
The above excerpt was originally published in The National Interest.
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